Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

US sanctions on Russia over Ukraine also target Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba
Benjamin Norton
02 Mar 2022
🖨️ Print Article
US sanctions on Russia over Ukraine also target Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at the ALBA summit in La Habana in December 2021 (Photo credit: Cuba's presidential office)

The U.S. and Western powers talk about a "Troika of Tyranny" in Latin America because the nations in that region recognize the dangers of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination. But any tyranny taking place is forced upon them by the U.S. and its NATO allies.

This article was originally published in Multipolarista.

President Joe Biden’s top Latin America advisor has admitted that US sanctions against Russia over Ukraine intentionally seek to hurt Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba as well.

The United States imposed a series of harsh sanctions on Russia following Moscow’s recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on February 21, and its subsequent military intervention in Ukraine on February 24.

Juan S. González, Biden’s special assistant for Latin America and the US National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, made it clear that these coercive measures against Russia are also aimed at damaging the economies of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba have socialist governments that Washington has long tried to overthrow. All three currently suffer under unilateral US sanctions, which are illegal according to international law.

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, an architect of the Iraq War, referred to these three Latin American nations as the so-called “Troika of Tyranny.”

Biden’s advisor González did an exclusive interview with Voz de América, the Spanish-language arm of the US government’s propaganda outlet Voice of America, on February 25.

Voz de América published his comments in a report titled “US sanctions on Russia will impact Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, White House estimates.”

“The sanctions against Russia are so robust that they will have an impact on those governments that have economic affiliations with Russia, and that is by design,” González explained.

“So Venezuela is going to start feeling that pressure. Nicaragua is going to feel that pressure, along with Cuba,” he added.

Biden’s Latin America advisor noted that Washington has imposed sanctions on 13 top financial institutions in Russia, including some of the largest in the country. He proudly said that these coercive measures will, “by design,” harm other countries that do a lot of trade with the Eurasian power.

González also used his interview with the US-funded Voz de América to reiterate Washington’s call for regime change against these three socialist governments in Latin America.

His comments were reported by the independent Bolivia-based news website Kawsachun News.

Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba stand with Russia against US and NATO

Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba have stood with Russia against NATO expansion and Western military encirclement.

President Nicolás Maduro said that Venezuela “laments the mockery and breaking of the Minsk agreements by NATO, promoted by the United States of America.”

Maduro stressed that Washington and NATO bear responsibility for the conflict, and “have generated strong threats against the Russian Federation.”
 

Cuba blamed Washington for the crisis as well. Its Foreign Ministry stated, “The U.S. determination to continue NATO’s progressive expansion towards the Russian Federation borders has brought about a scenario with implications of unpredictable scope, which could have been avoided.”

Denouncing Western governments for sending weapons to Ukraine, Cuba declared, “History will hold the United States accountable for the consequences of an increasingly offensive military doctrine outside NATO’s borders, which threatens international peace, security and stability.”

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega condemned Washington for sponsoring a 2014  coup in Ukraine, and joined Russia in recognizing the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

The chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, traveled to Nicaragua to meet with top officials from the Sandinista government, and thanked them for their support against NATO expansion and US threats.

Multipolarista is an independent news outlet documenting the transition to a multipolar world. Multipolarista is edited by journalist Benjamin Norton.

Sanctions
Venezuela
Cuba
Nicaragua
Russia

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
LECTURE: How U.S. Imperialism Ruled Cuba, Armando G. Entralgo, 1965
24 June 2026
“The U.S.A.
North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights
Resisting U.S. Human Rights Barbarism: The Arrest of Alyssa Philip In Trinidad and Tobago
24 June 2026
A protest leader in Trinidad was arrested during Labour Day celebrations for the crime of demanding justice for a paralyzed shooting
Isaac Saney
Walking the Tight-Rope and Threading the Needle: Strategic Adaptation Under Siege: Cuba's Economic Reforms and the Defence of Socialist Sovereignty
24 June 2026
Washington's economic war has left Cuba with no good options, and the current reforms are best understood as a defensive maneuver to
2026 Casa Ben Linder Bluefields Delegation
Nicaragua and The Miseducation of the People of the United States
17 June 2026
Nicaragua is a living example of anti-imperialist resistance and people-centered development. The job of those in the U.S.
Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
Luis Britto GarcĂ­a: I resist, therefore I am
17 June 2026
"We all know what lies behind the deafening silence that oppresses us.
Miguel DĂ­az-Canel BermĂşdez
Cuba will not surrender! Cuba persists and resists! And that persistence is intolerable to the empire!
10 June 2026
Speech delivered by Miguel Mario DĂ­az-Canel BermĂşdez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of
Carlos Martinez
Siege Socialism or Barbarism: Why We Must Stand with Cuba
10 June 2026
Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are astounding, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it loo
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Denial is Not a River in Egypt, or in Venezuela
03 June 2026
The U.S. regime change plot against Venezuela succeeded and created a puppet state.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: To The Aircraft Carrier Intrepid, Pedro Mir, 1962
03 June 2026
Oh, carrier Intrepid/you in these torrid waters of Santo Domingo/only out of fear.
Sam E. Anderson
Beyond the Algorithm: Defending the Cuban Revolution’s Record Against Ahistorical Attacks
03 June 2026
A critical analysis of the U.S.

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 13, 2026
    13 Mar 2026
    This week’s segment is devoted to the United States latest war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We hear the perspectives of a U.S. based activist and organizer with Black Alliance…
  • Man carrying Iranian flag
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Navid Zarrinnal’s Perspectives From Iran
    13 Mar 2026
    Navid Zarrinnal is an Iranian journalist and host of The Colony Archive podcast. He joins us from Tehran to discuss the US and Israeli aggression and explains why the left must be in solidarity with…
  • Bombing of Iran
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the U.S. War on Iran
    13 Mar 2026
    The United States attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran began on February 28. Our guest provides analysis on this U.S. aggression from an anti-imperialist and Black left perspective. Erica Caines is…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Urgent Need for the Black Radical Tradition
    11 Mar 2026
    The U.S. is careening towards economic and military disaster, a moment when the Black radical tradition is missing but badly needed.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SONG: International Organizations/Oganizasyon Mondyal, Manno Charlemagne, 1986
    11 Mar 2026
    “We salute all peoples who are fighting/We honor all those who have died/For the cause of freedom.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us